App Review: Blue Letter Bible

I really, really like the Blue Letter Bible website, I really do, it's one of my favorite study tools out there, it's packed full of information and references and commentaries. So when they came up with the iOS application I downloaded it immediately. Even though I'm trying to "unApple" my technical life I still have the odd Apple product or two laying around so I can compare iOS vs Android (and because my Boss says I have to have one... for now). Just recently the Blue Letter Bible just released an Android application of BLB and I immediately installed it on my phone and tablet (I'm very "Samsung-centric") and tore into the 'new kid on the block' to see what's under the hood and how it stacks up against it's older iOS brother. 

For you non techies iOS = Apple products, like iPhone, iPod, iPad iWatch, iStrain. Android = Android phones (Motorola, Samsung, LG) software is based on the very stable Linux operating system and the phones themselves do not shatter like great-grandma's finest lead crystal if dropped more than three inches. The Blue Letter Bible app is not available for Windows phones, then again much of the known technical universe is not available for the Windows phone.

Both the iOS version and the Android version have similar functions, their layout is a bit different so if you get used to one it will take you a little searching to find that same function in another. However, with just a few exceptions, the core functionality of each application is very similar. Here's my overall view of this application:

Tune To Jesus

When an orchestra gets together to belt out a few tunes the first they they do is tune. Tuning the orchestra is a time honored tradition and a very important part of a successful concert. 

Off stage the lead oboist tunes his/her oboe with a tuning fork or electronic device, then joins the orchestra. At the command of the Concertmaster the lead oboist plays a single note: A above middle C. For us geeky folks that translates to 440 MHz and the note is also called A-440. While she plays this note the horns and woodwinds tune to her A. When they are finished the Concertmaster directs her to play A again, this time the cellos and string basses tune their A strings to it, then tune their other three strings. A third time A is played by the lead oboist and the violins and violas tune their A strings to the oboe's A. 

Notice at no time does the members of the orchestra tune to each other, or another section, each individual musician tunes to the lead oboe because that one oboe is playing what the Concertmaster requires "A" to be. This is important because technically 443 MHz can be considered A in the musical word, as can 445 MHz and 438 MHz. But for the concert orchestra only 440 MHz will do. 

Ignore Rob Bell, Stand Fast On The Unchanging Word Of God

While recently schlepping a new heretical collection of Satanic nonsense book, former pastor turned media darling Rob Bell said on an Oprah Winfrey program recently spoke regarding the church imminently accepting "gay marriage" :

"We're moments away,.. I think culture is already there and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters from 2,000 years ago as their best defense, when you have in front of you flesh-and-blood people who are your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and co-workers and neighbors and they love each other and just want to go through life with someone."

Please don't ignore the fact that Rob Bell denigrated the very word of God word as mere letters from 2000 years ago, it's the best evidence that Rob Bell is not the moral teacher that he claims to be but a sad fallen sinner being used as a tool of damnation by Satan. He needs our prayers, not our anger, no matter how much he works to rile us up.

But he's right, weak, fallen churches are turning their backs on God accepting sin as a sacrament and caving to popular culture rather than bowing to Lord Jesus Christ. So when my bride announced she was going to visit Calvary Chapel Aurora for their Wednesday bible study, "they're speaking on homosexuality" I had a feeling of trepidation. Since the passing of Chuch Smith some Calvary Chapel churches have began to align themselves with the emergent church while Rick Warren begins to pick at the carcass of the rudderless church. I was worried that Rob Bell was right and the message that Pastor Ed at Aurora Calvary had might be an announcement that his church was going to follow the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and turn their backs on God.

Be The Berean!

A few years ago when my bride and I were church shopping we stopped into the Mountain View Church of the Holy Migraine, there they played "music" at such levels that my ears, deadened by years of working on heavy bomber aircraft, began to ache. After the aural and spiritual assault was over the preacher took the stage and began to speak.

And what a speech it was! Filled with unending bible verses delivered at a rate of fire that would make any heavy infantry company proud. Luckily I had my cell phone loaded with the YouVersion bible app and I punched in the book, chapter, and verse as fast as he could spit them out and found very quickly that he wasn't preaching the word of God, he was speaking a God flavored, feel good, self improvement seminar. Not one verse was actually used in context, and not a single verse was used in its entirety, and most verses used in their entirety and in context had little to nothing to do with what he was speaking about.

The Gospel According To Luke

If you hold to the concept that you can't believe a gospel because the author did not personally know Jesus while he was alive then don't read Luke. Luke never personally, physically met Jesus. They didn't have dinner together, Luke never heard Jesus preach, Luke didn't help distribute the bread and fish to the thousands. So obviously the Gospel of Luke cannot be trusted, right? 

The inaccurately titled blog The Church of Truth (which in reality is merely an atheist screed attacking something they can't possibly understand) goes to great and unsuccessful efforts to prove the falsehood that the bible can't be trusted and one of their great weapons is the completely inaccurate assessment that if the author of a Gospel didn't know Jesus while Jesus walked the earth, then that Gospel is not worth considering.

If you believe this assessment, then I urge you to consider doing the following: go to your nearest university, go into the research library, find the history section, and burn it to the ground. Statistically NONE of those books in there, other than autobiographies and memoirs, were written by someone who had "skin in the game", the vast majority of history books were are written long after the fact by researchers and historians who interviewed witnesses, acquaintances of witnesses, historical records and other history books.

The Gospel According to John

The Gospel of John was the last written and the most individual Gospel of the four. While the three synoptic gospels were written before the fall of Jerusalem and have specific audiences in mind, the Gospel of John was written long after the end of Jewish temple worship and not directed to a specific group or culture, but to the world as a whole. John's presentation is unique also, due to the fact that John focuses on Jesus the Savior, not the Kingdom of God. The synoptic gospels present Christ the Messiah who is offering the promised Kingdom of God to the Jews, in John the kingdom is only mentioned five times in three verses.

The primary purpose of this gospel is actually stated in the gospel itself, the reader doesn't have to dig for meaning or implied reasoning, it's all right there:

30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30-31)

Another unique thing about John is that it only covers 20 days in Jesus' life on earth and not in sequence. John does not record Jesus' birth, genealogy, childhood, baptism, temtation, transfiguration and assention of Jesus, but instead begins with the fact that Jesus is God (John 1:1-4). John records no parables and this is the only gospel to refer to Jesus as the "Lamb of God", an image familiar to Jews. The Jews understood the sacrifice of a lamb symbolized the taking away of sin.

The Gospel According To Mark

There is no internal documented evidence that the Gospel of Mark was written by Mark, or John Mark, the idea that the Gospel According to Mark came from the early church. The most important evidence comes from Papias (c. a.d. 140), who quotes an even earlier source as saying: 

Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the tradition of the things said and done by the Lord;

this tradition did not come to Mark as a finished, sequential account of the life of our Lord, but as the preaching of Peter—preaching directed to the needs of the early Christian communities;

Mark accurately preserved this material.

So if you don't want to outright reject the entire Gospel According to Mark  as many scholars wish us to do, then you can rightly call it the Gospel According to Peter as it appears that John Mark was acting as Peter's secretary. 

The Gospel According To Matthew

Saint Matthew and the Angel by Rembrandt

The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: (Matthew 1:1)

Here begins the first verse of the first Gospel of the New Testament. When you start to research the origins of the Gospels you find yourself wandering down rabbit holes best left unexplored, to be honest they would have been better left off undug. 

People, being merely humans, will argue anything, many times just for the sake of arguing. I've often heard engineers arguing the exact same side of an argument as their opponent just as caustically as if they were disagreeing over a matter of life or death. My boss calls this "vehemently agreeing with each other." Much of the time disagreements, especially between scholars, has little to do with the actual subject and in the end the argument boils down to "Listen to me!" 

I see that a lot in arguments against the Gospels, intellectuals and psudo-intellectuals thumping their chests and promoting the theory du jur of why the Gospel they targeted is false/forged/phoney. In the end their treatises do little more bowdlerize the gospels by expunging Jesus from the material and focusing solely on the "researcher's" skills of morphology while congratulating themselves on their conversion to evangelical atheism. 

Sewing Doubt - The Attack is ON!

After re-reading my previous post I realized that there was a huge point that I wanted to make which I didn't get around to making. The point was that intentional or not, Dr. Martin's theory that Christ's disciples were little more than armed thugs was merely part of what appears to be a coordinated  and multifaceted attack on the bible. It is quite possible, and probably likely, that some of Jesus' may have started out as lawless thugs, but in the end they were men and sinners like we all are and learned at the foot of God made man. To claim that Jesus was crucified simply because Peter was carrying a knife denies the sanctity of Jesus' atoning work on the cross and is nothing less than a blatant attack on God's word.

Does Dr. Martin even realize he's being used as a tool of Satan to sew doubt? Probably not, but as I researched that post I found so many 'great minds' all across the internet sewing doubt by proclaiming God's word as little more than insignificant babble that I began to get nervous. I shouldn't be surprised as creating doubt over God's word was Satan's first attack to drive a wedge between us and our Father;

The Word

The Bible Confirms Science.

Sad to say but too much of science now is made up silliness just to gain grant money or make a political point. How much is too much? My answer is "Any" is too much. Science is primarily man's way of explaining God's creation, but when you look at the fraud in evolution studies and global warming cooling whatever, you realize that our atheist friends aren't exactly forthcoming when trying to make their point. Luckily we have the bible to keep us on track when studying God's creations close up.

When In Doubt, Err On The Side Of Scripture

A while ago I was involved in an on-line exchange with a few Christians who were debating the role of women in the church. It wasn't a spirited debate, you know the kind, each side is threatening the other with hellfire and brimstone for the misinterpretation of a particular syllable or vowel, Instead it was more resigned, like the participants had all agreed on a point and no one was happy about it. They agreed that there is no male or female in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28) so female preachers were inevitable and maybe even should be encouraged. I don't think that's what Paul and God's Holy Spirit meant by Galatians 3:28 because both Titus 1:6 and 1 Timothy 3:2 describes how a church elder must be a man who is blameless and faithful to his wife. Personally I don't think these verses qualifies a woman to be considered for the position of an elder in a church, 

I may be mistaken on this because I'm not a Greek scholar, nor have I spoken at any length on this subject with Paul. In the military when you're stuck in a predicament and not sure what action to take the rule of thumb is "When in doubt, err on the side of victory" (AKA When in doubt win the war). However when discussing doctrine and theology and you come to a point of debate the only solution is "When in doubt, err on the side of scripture" How can you possibly go wrong? We dig up lots and lots of verses from the new and old testaments that tell about the veracity of scripture but why dig that far? It's right there in the Gospels, it's exactly what Jesus wanted us to know. Jesus taught us that scripture was God-breathed, and when He was confronted with Satan Jesus firmly said:

But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (Matthew 4:4) 

What is the Apocrypha and what's it doing in my Bible?

The Apocrypha is a set of books written between 400 BC and the time of Jesus' ministry on Earth. These books consist of 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach), Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Additions to Daniel, The Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

Protestants reject the apocrypha as being inspired for one very good reason - the creators of the Old Testament, the Jewish community, rejects the apocrypha. So why does it exist in some bibles? 

Emergent Monday: Bible? What Bible?

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16)

Except when emergent superstar Andy Stanley is in da house. Then the bible must be kept under wraps, hidden from view, and never quoted. Well... you can quote from the bible, but you can't say where the quote came from. For those of you that haven't heard the name Andy Stanley, he's the son of Dr. Charles Stanley and the man who called atheist apostate Barak Hussien Obama our "Pastor In Chief". Although you don't hear a lot from him, Andy Stanley is a heavy hitter in the Emergent Church. While he claims to not be a part of the Emergent Church Andy Stanley has been a conduit for New Age contemplative poison to infiltrate the church counting cult leader Steven Furtick and counts New Age preachers Bill Hybels and Louie Giglio as friends.

Because I'm Happy

My RCC upbringing still makes things a bit confusing in my bible studies, I have to relearn  a lot of stuff, and there's some notions still floating around in my head that came from my days learning the catechism. One of these instilled notions is 'Don't worry about what the bible says, we'll tell you what you need to know.' 

So when I read the word "blessed" it means one thing to me: someone who has been beatified or canonized. Beatified means to determine that a dead person is holy enough to be worshiped and canonized means to determine that a dead person is holy enough to be worshiped and carries the RCC rank of Saint. And do not let the RCC apologist tell you they venerate and not worship, that is incorrect, they certainly do worship dead people. Catholic Encyclopedia defines Beatification as:

Beatification is a permission for public worship restricted to certain places and to certain acts.

Interesting how Revelation 22:9 escaped the RCC. So with this nonsense stuck in my head how can I possibly properly appreciate the Beatitudes?  I have to make a conscious effort to remember that "blessed" does not involve an ancient ceremony and worshiping a false god. 

When looking at the beatitudes I've recently discovered that the Greek word that got transliterated into blessed is actually makarios:

Makarios: a prolonged form of the poetical makar (meaning the same); supremely blest; by extension fortunate, well off :- blessed, happy (× -ier).

If I take out 'blessed' and all of its expired connotations for me and replace blessed with other adjectives that makarios covers, the beatitudes now appear a lot clearer to me:

³ “Prosperous are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Fortunate are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Happy are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ “Well off are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸ “Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ “Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰ “Fortunate are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12)

I'm not re-writing the bible, I'm using appropriate meanings from the original word used. It does not sound as pretty as the KJV wording, but the meaning is clearer to me with my 21st century vocabulary. Sometimes we have to dig to get to the meaning of the words God laid down for us. It's worth it.

Divers And Strange Doctrines

9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. (Hebrews 13:9-10)

Varied and strange teachings (or in the King James "divers and strange doctrines") seem to be piling up in my life lately. For some reason I'm surrounded by Catholic priests who prefer pre-Vatican II teachings, and new age Catholic nuns who love their power of handing out magic crackers, and neo-pagans who think Pope Francis is just awesome because he doesn't let that whole Bible thing get in the way of being the pope. In the end these people are trying to offer comfort, but I just want to scream, "Padre - Latin is dead, English please.", "Sister - it's what's in your heart, not in your hand" and "Broomhilda - just stop"

Don't get me wrong, the Lords Prayer is a great prayer, but it was intended as an outline of how to pray, not what to pray. There's something strangely unnerving to me to hear it repeated over and over again (Matthew 6:7) with the joy and enthusiasm of a half awake school child droning through the pledge of allegiance just to get it over with. The best part of my day lately has been when I can cast aside the fripperies and icons of a religion God has led me away from and to relax with the pure joy of Sola Scriptura - to delve into God's word and let it wash the pain of the day away.

Hebrews: Jesus is greater, so hold fast to Him - The Overview Bible Project

While I'm in Florida skipping out on winter and helping my folks a bit in their time of need I have little time to myself for writing. I have a half dozen posts in production but between work and mom & dad I'm lucky to be able to read the blogs I currently read, let alone actually write one of my own.

But I am emerging from the haze of unending errands (and dips in the neighbors pool) to say that I am so blessed to have found the Overview Bible Project, while it's not for everybody, it's right up my alley. Ask Mrs WideAwakeChristian, when I decide I like something, I start digging into the background, history, composition, origination, etc. of what ever I'm interested in. (I've even gone so far as to research the history of roads I like, and guess what - it was actually fascinating! The roads I like turned out to originally be narrow gauge railroads!)

The  Overview Bible Project is a gift from God for the incurable Berean, the more I dig there the more it's becoming a valuable tool in my understanding of God's word. What's more, it makes me want to get in there and read His word more and more. Check out the Overview Bible Project's article on Hebrews and tell me if you disagree. While not an actual bible study tool, the Overview Bible Project can best be described as those introduction pages to each book in the bible done right.

Movie Review: 'Son of God' Is Most Certainly Not The Son of God - Christian Post

From the Abandoned To Christ blog at The Christian Post

Movie Review: 'Son of God' Is Most Certainly Not The Son of God

by Sunny Shell

Today, "Son of God", a new movie produced by Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett opened in theaters across the country. Individual Christians and well-known Christian churches, organizations and even schools are raving about seeing Jesus on the big screen.

Many Christian groups bought out multiple screens at theaters or purchased mass quantities of group tickets for this epic film...or rather, epic fail of the true and biblical story of Jesus, the Son of God.

Last year I was contacted by a media group for The History Channel. They emailed me requesting my help in promoting their upcoming 10-episode miniseries called "The Bible". After reviewing their material, Bible studies based on the series, and clips of every episode, I responded kindly telling them that due to the unbiblical nature of the series, I was unable to help promote it. After watching the entire miniseries I wrote and published my review and I haven't heard from them since.

Prior to entering the theater today, I went in with an open-Bible-mind and open-Spirit-heart. I hoped that this movie was better than the miniseries, but alas, it was not. The majority of this film was simply scenes taken from the heretical and blasphemous miniseries. Please know, I don't take these two terms lightly, and you neither should any professing Christian.

Bible Infographics

Info-graphics rock, in a quick snapshot they can take paragraphs of hard to picture data and put it into a form that's easily digestible with one glance. They're not in-depth information, and were never meant to be, but the present in a text and graphic form something that takes thousands of words of straight narrative to describe.

OverviewBible.com is a website dedicated to giving an overview of the bible and uses many interesting info-graphic diagrams to illustrate concepts that have very complex or repetitive narrative descriptions. It's true that in a biblical sense they're merely just showing "gee wiz!" information, but that's what makes the narrative portions of the bible come alive. How many times have you read Ezekiel and ended up looking for and praying for a diagram or drawing to explain what Ezekiel is talking about? (Especially in the final chapters describing the temple!) They don't have any ezekiel there yet, but what is there is incredible. I love the I love the infographic of Every Dream of the Bible and eagerly await more as they are produced

Interpreting The Bible: Let The Bible Do The Work

Atheist: You can't believe what the bible says, it's been translated into Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, German, French, English...

Me: So was Lord Of The Rings but you never complain about that, so what's your point?

Atheist: But the bible is so old, you have to admit that something was lost when manuscripts were copied

Me: The dead sea scrolls proved to the world that Old Testament has been faithfully copied and translated over the years. Yet on the other hand there's no way to verify the veracity of Caesers "Gallic Wars" yet you believe them, so what's your point?

Atheist: So many people have been killed because of what the bible says, look at the Salem witch trials.

Me: Last weekend more people in Africa died for their Christian faith than in the entire decade of the Salem witch trials yet you failed to mention that. So what's your point?

Atheist: What I'm saying is, how do you know that the Bible is being interpreted correctly? How do you know that your priest or minister or preacher or what ever you call them is telling you the right thing?

Me: You read the bible.